Many children’s apps available today are much more than just mindless games—they help kids acquire knowledge and learn new skills. Accordingly, let’s take a look at seven of the most popular children’s educational apps this year.
1. ABCmouse
Priced at $13 per month, ABCmouse is designed for 2 to 8-year-olds and offers more than 10,000 online activities to play via the app or website. There are games to help children with traditional school subjects, such as science, language arts, and math, as well as songs, puzzles, and art activities to choose from. Although ABCmouse is at the pricier end of the scale and only available in Spanish and English, it was devised by educators and early learning experts, and it provides a complete, rounded curriculum for preschool-age kids.
2. Little 10 Robot
With versions available for all ages, the Little 10 Robot app combines several activities and subjects, covering reading, writing, math, geography, counting, and logical thinking.
For example, Little 10 Robot’s Operation Math Code Squad is targeted to 9 to 12-year-olds. Priced at $2.99, it enables multiple players to work together, solving equations and racing against the clock to disarm Dr. Odd’s devious devices. Meanwhile, DrawBridge Sketches provides children with the tools they need to draw anything they can imagine, including the ability to import images for additional inspiration.
With interactive, colorful visuals to keep children engaged, the app has earned a variety of industry awards, including TechWithKids’s Best Pick App, bestappsforkids’ Most Popular App 2014, a Parents’ Choice Fun Stuff Award, and a Parents’ Choice Gold Award.
3. DuoLingo Kids
The kids’ version of the popular language app that gamifies learning a foreign language, DuoLingo Kids is best suited to children who can read and write in their native language, although younger kids may enjoy playing along.
Designed to help children “speak like a native,” the app provides short, frequent lessons that enable them to learn a new language wherever they are. DuoLingo Kids teaches children basic vocabulary, helps them form short sentences, and enables them to speak a few words and sentences of a new language almost immediately. Currently, the app offers lessons in French, Spanish, and English.
Also featuring colorful animation that appeals to kids, DuoLingo Kids is an exciting tool for any parent who is keen to help their child start learning a new language at a young age.
4. Epic
Epic is an app that helps children improve their vocabulary skills via interactive stories that engage the young reader’s imagination. Incorporating a selection of more than 40,000 popular children’s books, Epic offers a practically endless stream of educative titles to help children expand their reading comprehension and language skills, as well as a variety of activities and puzzles designed to improve young users’ concentration and focus. The overall objective of the app is to help children become active, enthusiastic readers.
5. Skyview
The night sky holds an endless sense of wonder and fascination for kids and adults alike. Skyview is an astronomy app designed for children and adults that enables users to explore what they see in space simply by aiming their smartphone at the sky. The app then provides information about the stars, constellations, and galaxies they’re looking at.
Relying on augmented reality to pinpoint various objects in the sky both during the day and at night, Skyview also enables users to share their findings with family and friends. The app also provides notifications about upcoming celestial events, such as eclipses. Altogether, the app is a fun tool to bring the whole family together and kindle a shared love of astronomy.
6. Endless Numbers
Following in the footsteps of the popular Endless Alphabet, Endless Numbers relies on an army of delightful, animated number monsters that help young children recognize numbers and numeric sequences and patterns. The free version comes with five numbers, with an add-on pack available for $14.99 that features an additional 95 numbers. Endless Numbers is designed to reinforce counting, numeracy, and number recognition skills. It incorporates interactive equation puzzles and sequences that make numbers come alive, as well as short clips of animation to provide each number with meaning and context.
7. Hopscotch
Learning to program is challenging, even for adults. Nevertheless, it is increasingly recognized as a valuable skill—one that parents would do well to help their children acquire. Accordingly, Hopscotch offers a user-friendly, engaging platform that makes coding easy to learn.
Centering around open-ended learning that stimulates children’s logical thinking abilities, Hopscotch challenges users to code independently, experiment with and personalize programs, and build their own projects. With gaming and animation options to make learning fun, the app also features a wide variety of avatars. Kids can personalize their profiles, share their programs, and interact with friends and the Hopscotch community.
Targeting tweens and teens ages 10 to 16, Hopscotch is a great beginner’s programming app that exposes kids to the fundamentals of coding, builds confidence, and encourages kids to think logically. Compatible only with Apple devices, Hopscotch is free to download, with in-app purchases available.